Hi!
So, finally it’s here. The moment where Lois will come clean and put her cards on the table. But I have to warn you, there might also be a bit of a whammy feeling to this part. Don’t worry, Ann, no tarring and feathering is happening in here.
And thanks for your help, my wonderful betas Mona, Kmar, and Mellie.
Michael
Disclaimer: The recognizable characters and settings in this story are the property of D.C. Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions, and anyone else with a legal right to them, and I have no claim on them whatsoever, nor am I profiting by their use. It’s just the original stuff, that would be mine, written down to bring some entertainment to other FoLC.
The setting is right after “Season’s Greedings” in Season 2.
Blocks in >> << are literal thoughts by the character.
Rating: PG-13
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Part eleven saw Clark enlisting Mayson’s help in his search for Anonymous while Lois found herself confronted with another of Clark’s peace offerings. But what will happen once they meet again. What will Clark say? What will Lois have to offer to him? Read on to find out.
Part 12 /
TOC /
Comments **********
“Lois, darlin’, is everything all right?” asked a male voice with a heavy southern accent.
“Wha-!?” exclaimed Lois, nearly jumping out of her skin at the interruption to her daydreaming. “Oh, Perry, it’s you! You know better than to sneak up on me like that! But, since you asked, no, everything is not alright.” Lois quickly clamped her mouth shut, silently cursing how her inner voice had decided to make itself heard.
Perry sighed and turned around to grab a chair from an adjoining desk. After he had sat down, he looked straight into her eyes, making sure he had her full attention. “Lois, I know I cut you a lot of slack yesterday.” At her stiffening he quickly continued, grabbing her shoulder to force her to look at him. “Don’t for a moment think I haven’t noticed how Clark has done most of the work on the Metro-PD piece. I didn’t become the editor of this paper just because I could yodel. I could recognize your hand in a story even if it was just a paragraph or two. The same holds true for Clark’s style. You complement each other.” His voice turned serious. “And when Clark submitted that piece, there was none of the edge there that you have shown me in the stories you’ve written over the years.”
“Perry, I-” Lois tried to explain.
“No ‘Perry, I’s’,” he cut her off, “or ‘Perry, buts’, for that matter. You didn’t do squat except let your partner carry the entire load. And that’s fine. I know everyone has a bad day once in a while. What’s not okay, is that it seems like this was not a onetime occurrence. What in the Sam Hill is going on, Lois?” Perry released her to spread his arms as if to signify the entire city in ‘this’.
Perry had given her an opening, and she might as well just to come clean. Tell him that her story had been a thud.
“The Superman story, Perry, it-”
Her boss suddenly put his hand to the bridge of his nose, starting to pinch it while shaking his head in defeat. “Lois, Lois, Lois. Please, don’t tell me you are still trying to dig up a story about Superman and this anonymous woman of yours.”
“No, Perry, that’s not it.” Lois leaned back, her voice taking on a gloomy tone while she folded her hands over her chest to underline her seriousness. “That story is dead,” she sighed before adding silently, >>And hopefully buried.<<
“*You* killed a story?” the incredulous voice boomed in her ears.
“Yes, I did,” she huffed, wondering why the Chief’s eyes had begun to look like saucers. “What? You think I’m not capable of letting go of a story when it turns out my source has been wrong?” Lois asked in an indignant tone, getting more and more irritated by her boss’s unbelieving noises.
“No, Honey,” Perry put his hand back on her shoulder. “Of course I don’t think you’re incapable of admitting you’re wrong. It’s just…,” he trailed off.
>>Is Perry *pacifying* me?<< Now Lois really started to long for the chocolates her partner had left her. Those chocolates that where now out of her reach, well over on Clark’s desk. Where she had thrown them, after deciding she didn’t deserve the treat. She turned her head gazing at the brown temptation, 10 feet away.
Oh well, if Perry insisted on being a cross between a consoling father and a warden in an asylum, she could at least get him to back off. She was *not* in need of comfort, or ready to be admitted. And if she actually were to be these things *now* with Perry, then she would never be able to talk to Clark later. When he came back from his rescue. Yes, that was it. She was going to be a strong woman now. She could deal with all of this.
Satisfied about having decided what to do, she pulled her head back from where it had involuntarily turned, only to notice that Perry’s eyes had followed her own.
“Nice flowers, Lois,” Perry intruded into her thoughts. “But what are the truffles doing back on Clark’s desk?”
Startled, Lois could only squeak, “Truffles?”
Perry looked directly into her eyes and she started to squirm around. Her boss knew something, she was sure of that. He always knew *something*. The question was, *what* did he know?
“Why did you throw them back to his desk?”
Lois felt as if she was thunderstruck. How had Perry managed to come up with *that* conclusion? He hadn’t been in the newsroom when she had thrown the box back to Clark’s desk. “JIMMY!”
“No, Honey. Jimmy hasn’t said anything,” Perry told her in a quiet voice and turned to look in the direction of Jimmy’s desk. “No Jimmy! Lois just misunderstood something. No need to come over!” he hollered before focusing his attention back on her. “You want to move this discussion into my office, Lois?”
Lois took a look around for herself, suddenly becoming aware of the stares her colleagues were giving her. >>When had the newsroom gotten to be so *crowded*?<<
“Sure, Perry,” she resigned herself to her fate.
**********
Lois walked past Perry into the editor’s office and allowed him to shut the door behind them. This was it, she was sure. Perry would certainly have a heart to heart with her and she had to extremely careful not to let anything slip.
“So, Lois, do you want to tell me what in the King’s name is going on, or should I guess,” Perry opened up while walking around his desk to take his seat.
Lois chose to remain standing, the better to walk around and waive her arms in defense, agitation, or just simply to wave them at all.
“Clark’s attempt to apologize,” she pressed out, trying to explain the flowers and the chocolates.
“And…?” Perry probed.
Lois turned away from him, hugging herself closely as if to ward off the unpleasant words she was about to say next. “I don’t deserve his apology.”
“What has Clark done that you can’t forgive…?” Perry trailed off, suddenly realizing that Lois had not, in fact, said she wasn’t able to accept his apology. “Excuse me, what do you mean, ‘you don’t deserve the apology’?”
Lois faced her boss again, taking a few steps to stand behind the visitor’s chair, her hands resting on its backrest. “That’s between me and Clark, Perry.” She pleaded with her eyes for him to understand. “Clark hasn’t…” She began again. “Clark and I, we…” Three times’ a charm. “Clark believes he has done something – something personal I will not get into – and he thinks he now has to apologize for it. Only he hasn’t and I have and-” Lois hiccupped. “-and now it’s all such a mess!” Lois straightened again, spreading her arms and turning around to look at the desk of the man she had just mentioned. Only to see him stare back at her. “Clark…,” she squeezed out.
“Now, now, Lois, Honey. I’m sure you two can work it out. There was this one time almost two decades ago, when Alice and I…”
Lois mind trailed off, her eyes still locked with those of her partner. Just how much had he overheard. Did he actually listen in on her conversations? No, he wouldn’t do that. He was Superman. And more importantly, he was Clark. He wouldn’t do something like that. He wouldn’t betray her trust like that. Or would he? Had he betrayed her trust with his lies, or when he had succumbed to her seduction? Was he really a Boy Scout or was he just another man? She had to find out now.
And with those thoughts, Lois completely forgot about her boss still rambling on about a story from his younger days. She stormed out of the editor’s office in order to make a beeline for her partner, who still stood frozen solid, the box of chocolates clutched in his hands.
**********
Clark had decided to do a quick patrol over the roofs of Metropolis before heading back to his place of work. And given how he had already cheated when getting to the D.A.’s office, he thought that he should at least delay his return to the Planet. After all, it would be a bit hard to explain why the whole trip to Mayson and back took less than half an hour. And he *did* work with reporters as his colleagues, people who made a living of noticing details.
So it was mid-morning when he got back to the Planet, and he jovially greeted his colleagues as they entered the building alongside of him.
“Good morning, Clark!” he heard a friendly voice from behind him just as he was about to enter the elevator.
“A good morning to you too, Eduardo.” Clark held the door open for the city desk reporter rushing up to the elevator.
“Late night stakeout?”
“Huh?” Clark wasn’t sure what his colleague was talking about, before realizing it was already past nine. The accident on 5th and Hobbs really had taken a lot more time than he had expected. “Oh, no, I’m just getting back from a meeting downtown.”
“Ah, yes, of course,” Eduardo smiled.
The elevator doors opened and Clark hastily retreated from the enclosed space. His colleagues did have a tendency to grill him whenever he and Lois had a spat. Not that he ever said anything, except perhaps that they had disagreed about a story, a witness, or something equally non-descriptive. And this time, what was he to say to evade the question? Oh sure, he could say it was about a story, but given how they had acted yesterday, he wasn’t so sure it would convince anyone. Yes, it was far better to avoid his colleagues altogether until this was resolved.
**********
Clark’s first gaze traveled to his partner’s desk, anxious to check whether she had accepted his offerings. And from the looks of it, she had. The flowers were still in place and as he got closer, he could see that she had also apparently read the letter, for the ripped-open envelope was still lying on her desk.
The next thing he noticed was that the chocolates were missing. Relieved that she had indeed accepted his offerings, Clark continued on to his own desk. Then he froze in mid-step. There, right in the middle of his desk, he saw the box of chocolates. Still wrapped in the transparent cellophane and for all intents and purposes untouched.
>>What was going on?<< Clark was dumbfounded. Why would Lois let the flowers remain on her desk and get rid of the chocolates instead? When had Lois ever let go of *any* chocolate. Reaching out to pick the box up, Clark continued to ponder this mystery. And where *was* his partner, anyway?
Looking up from where he was staring at his sweet peace offering, he let his eyes travel the newsroom. He knew of course that she was here somewhere. He had heard her heartbeat the moment he had stepped into the Planet building. But now it was beating faster than usual and he frantically tried to focus on her.
Then he found her. Lois was standing in their editor’s office, gesticulating wildly and then he heard her exclaim, “Clark!” just as she had turned around to face the glass wall – and him.
>>What was Lois doing in Perry’s office?<< he wondered, before his mind began to conjure up all sorts of horror scenarios involving Lois, Perry, and a rejected box of chocolates. In the end, he realized, it could mean only one thing.
Lois had thrown the box of chocolates right back at his desk and stormed off to talk to their boss to tell him that her partner was stalking her.
>Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!<< he scolded himself. He shouldn’t have laid it on so thick. He should have given her time. Waited in the shadows for her to calm down. Allowed her to remember the good they had shared and to come to terms with her feelings for him. Hadn’t he already caused her enough grief without pushing her into a corner? He didn’t notice how his grip tightened over the box he was holding, slightly squishing its corners.
Then Lois ripped the door open and practically raced straight towards him. This was it, he guessed. This was where she would tell him to take a hike. Where she would show him that it didn’t matter whether or not he loved her, or she loved him. Where instead, she would tell him that he had violated her in the worst possible way and that he should leave before she called the cops on him.
His thoughts were interrupted when Lois gripped his arm and began to drag him off to the conference room. >>This was soon getting old,<< a small part of his mind mused. >>Perhaps I really should set my desk up in there.<< On second thought, he wouldn’t be working here for much longer, so it wouldn’t matter anyway.
**********
Once Clark was inside the conference room, Lois turned around to close the door and began to lower the blinds. Still remembering the last time she had done so, just yesterday morning, Clark steeled himself for what was about to come. First though he tried to head off her tirade by going first and offering her the easy way out. It was the least he could do.
“I’ll quit. You don’t have to go through seeing me again. I’ll quit. I thought I could make it up to you, but I was wrong. I won’t bother you again. I’m *so* sorry.” Clark had lowered his head as he spoke to her, unable to bear the look of pain and betrayal he was sure to see in her eyes.
When he ended his short speech, Clark became aware of the fact that Lois wasn’t where he had thought she would be. Instead, he had to direct his gaze back down to the floor. There she was sitting, her back against the wall, her legs pulled up close to her body and her head resting on her knees while she was quietly shaking with uncontrolled sobs.
In a heartbeat he was crouching beside her, careful not to touch her. He hated it. All his instincts cried out for him to cradle her close, to kiss away the tears he had so unwittingly caused. And yet, he couldn’t. He had already done enough damage. He couldn’t crowd her now, too, when she was the most vulnerable.
“Lois, please, I…,” he faltered. “I’m *so* sorry. I know that doesn’t even begin to cover what I’ve done to you, but for all that it's worth, I *am* so sorry. I understand now that you don’t want me to apologize, and I will stop.” He began to dig around his pockets for a tissue, and upon finding it, laid it gently into her left hand, which was currently occupied in clutching her right arm. “I’m going to go quietly and I will not bother you again.”
At this Clark stopped, for Lois had started to cry even more violently now, pressing the white paper wad against her eyes in the process. What else could he do, except leave?
“I’m just hurting you more by being here, aren’t I?” he asked and began to rise. It was only then that he suddenly felt Lois grabbing his arm. In fact, she was gripping down so hard, that if he had been human, he would surely have carried away bruises from this encounter.
“Don’t-” Lois sobbed. “-go.”
He turned back to face her again and found himself staring straight into the red-rimmed and bloodshot eyes of his partner. He was quite sure he could feel his heart actually shattering at this sight. *He* had done this to her. *He* had reduced to most wonderful woman on the planet to this. How could he even live with that knowledge?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered and Clark had to use his super-hearing to actually make out her words.
Why was *she* apologizing to *him*. She hadn’t done anything wrong. True, she had reacted quite badly yesterday morning, but this, too, had been his fault. He had brought all of this onto himself.
“Don’t apologize, Lois,” he tried to console her, looking straight into her eyes, imploring his acceptance of his guilt to her with his next words. “You haven’t done anything wrong. You were angry, and justifiably so.” He carefully stroked her left hand, which was still employed in a death grip on his right biceps. “I can’t let you go on hurting like this. I will let you live your life and stay away from you.” Clark hoped fervently that she now understood that he wasn’t going to keep on harassing her. Clark’s thoughts abruptly stopped as his brain registered the fact that Lois’ grip had suddenly gotten even tighter.
“I-” She sniffled. “It’s my fault. It’s *all* my fault. I’ve wanted to get you to-” Lois violently dragged up some snot before it could drip down from her nose. “-leave and now you’re going and it’s *all* my fault,” she whispered, her last words again trailing off into the realm of super-hearing.
>>What did she just say!?<< Clark was stunned. She was crying. She had refused his apology and yet she didn’t want him to go away? “Lois, please, I don’t understand. I thought that’s what you wanted?” he exclaimed in disbelief.
“No, I lo-” She choked. “I love you. And now you are going to leave and I will be alone again.”
Clark suddenly found himself squat on his posterior, shell-shocked at her declaration. His parents had been right. She didn’t hate him. She loved him! She *loved* him. And she was scared that he would leave her. Oh, how could he have been so *stupid*!
Clark quickly got to his knees and cradled her tear-streaked face in his palms while gently stroking away the tears-tracks with this thumbs. “Oh, no, Lois,” he began to reassure her, his own face just inches from her hers. “I’m not going to leave you. I love you too much for that. I-”
She interrupted him. “You will.” A tear streaked down. “What I’ve done to you is unforgivable.”
“Shhhh, Lois. Don’t worry about that. I’m sure Perry will not pursue this story. It will blow over. You haven’t said anything that can’t be explained away. I *know* you would never actually expose my secret. I *know* I can trust you,” he pleaded with her to understand. “It’s what *I* did to *you* that’s unforgivable. I lied to you and then I took advantage of you. I ra-”
*SLAP!*
Clark suddenly felt Lois’ hand hitting his check in a resounded slap and sat back on his ankles, staring at his partner’s wide-open eyes.
“Don’t *ever* say that again, Clark! Don’t even *think* that,” he heard Lois press out between trembling lips. And yet at the same time, he could hear a steely edge in her voice and a fire burning in her eyes that hadn’t been there a second before. “You haven’t taken advantage of me, Clark. You haven’t done anything wrong. I-” She faltered again. “I… It was… I… Clark, I…”
Clark wasn’t sure what was going on, but he knew what he had to do next. And so he quickly put an index finger onto Lois’ lips to shush her.
“I won’t say it again, Lois. I promise. But I still shouldn’t have let things get so out of hand. I didn’t even tell you about me before we... I had let you believe you were going to be with Superman.” Lois was about to speak up again, but Clark kept the finger pressed onto her lips, sealing her thoughts inside her. “And I promise I will help you bring down Anonymous. We will do it together. Quietly and nobody will ever be the wiser about what had happened between us.” And with those final words he removed his finger from her lips, allowing her to answer.
“Anonymous?” she hiccupped.
“Yes, Lois.” Clark reached forward again, cradling her left check once more in his right hand. “Anonymous. Did you read the letter I had left for you? And the copies of the two letters I had received yesterday and the day before yesterday?”
Lois nodded silently, a tear trickling down her left check, then slowly over his fingers and the back of his hand.
“I don’t have a lead yet. I’ve checked the letters, but there was nothing on them, except a faint trace of aftershave. The current season’s hit at that. *Hundreds of thousands* are using that aftershave. It’s almost as if to taunt me.” Clark shook his head at this little revelation he just had. “But I promise you, we will find out who did this to you. To us,” he amended before taking a deep breath.
“You are going to look for Anonymous?”
“I’d hoped to tell you this in a less emotional moment, but I understand now that you have to know this now. I went to talk with Mayson this-”
“Mayson!?” Lois squeaked. “You mean Mayson *Drake*, the district attorney?”
“Yes, Lois. Don’t worry, I never told her it was about you – or Superman, for that matter. I just told her that we had a suspicion about someone using Revenge again.” He steadied her head. “And I asked her, if she could check up on Miranda Jameson. You know, like if she had any visitors or other connections, the works.” Clark paused before telling her the rest. “She promised to look into it for us and to share the information she could find. She’s going to come here this evening.”
“What?”
Clark looked into her eyes, and seeing the panic there shocked him to the core. “Don’t worry, Lois, she doesn’t know anything personal about what happened. She is just going to come here, have dinner with us and give us all the details we need.”
“Dinner?”
Lois wasn’t reacting the way he had hoped and he wasn’t sure why. He had already told her he wasn’t going to tell her anything about them, so there was no way Lois could be embarrassed in front of the district attorney.
He tried again. “Yes, Lois. I-” But he was interrupted when she started to sob again.
“So you are dat-” She gulped. “That’s it now, isn’t it?” Another sob escaped her mouth. “You are dating her and I did-” She noisily sucked air through her nose.
He had to reassure her now. He couldn’t let her think that he and *Mayson* could be dating. How could she even think that? He loved *her*, Lois.
“No Lois, I don’t-”
“It was-” Lois’ lip trembled too much to talk. “It was all just the drug. You and I, it wasn’t even real. I drugged you and it wasn’t even real.”
He wasn’t getting through to her. She still mumbled about him and Mayson and him being affected by the drug and only sleeping with Lois because of it. “Wait Lois, Mayson and I, we aren’t dating. Tonight is not a *date*. It’s you and me, talking to a friend at the D.A.’s…,” Clark trailed off. Suddenly he wasn’t sure if his super-hearing wasn’t picking up garbled sounds.
What had Lois just uttered? He forced his mind to replay the last few words Lois said to him. It wasn’t real because *she* had *drugged him*?
“What are you saying, Lois?” He had to be sure about this.
Lois stared back at him with glazed over eyes. “I… I… dru-… drugged… y-… you,” she stammered, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.
He hadn’t been mistaken. It wasn’t just Lois who had been drugged. He too, had been exposed to a drug. Only now it turned out *Lois* had drugged *him*. What he didn’t understand was when and how. After all, he had been feeling aroused during the whole day he had spent with Lois, but he had only visited her as Superman later this evening. So what *had* happened? He really didn’t understand it. And he understood even less *how* she had managed to drug him. But those things weren’t important right now.
What was important, was the sobbing woman in front of him. He had to reassure her. And he had to do so now. “Shhhh... don’t cry, Lois. It’s not your fault. You were desperate. I remember what Revenge did to you the last time. No one can blame you for what you did, least of all, I. *Anonymous* did this to you. He is responsible for drugging you. He is the one who…,” Clark trailed off, suddenly becoming aware that Lois was whispering again.
Listening closer, he heard her defeated voice. “…not drugged. Just dumb.”
What was that about her not being drugged? He had to ask. Taking her hands between his, he used their combined fist to raise her chin. “What is it Lois? Of course you had been drugged. The letters. Anonymous had gloated about how he managed to destroy what we have. But I won’t let him succeed. Please, Lois, don’t feel bad. I don’t blame you for what you did. It wasn’t something you would do while able to think rationally. I know you are a good person. Don’t blame-
She was whispering again and this time he had remembered to keep his ears trained on her whisper. “There is no Anonymous.”
Anonymous didn’t exist? But then who had written the letters?
“Lois, what are you talking about? Of course Anonymous is real. Somebody had written the letters. Somebody had drugged you.”
“I… I… sent-” She hiccupped. “I was Anonymous.” And with those words she pulled her hands from his suddenly frozen grasp and once again buried her face in her hands.
**********
Lois never saw the stricken look on Clark’s face. The utter confusion and then the understanding before he got to his feet and rushed out of the door and to the stairway. It was only seconds later that Lois heard the distinct sonic boom and fell back into crying for all she had just lost.
**********
tbc
